Wilberforce University

[@writtwoodson6879]

Thank you very much for the video. As the video stated, the university was established through a partnership between the Methodist Episcopal church and the African Methodist Episcopal church (A.M..E.) The founding Board of Directors had twenty-six members. There were four black American members including Rev. Lewis Woodson and Rev. Daniel Payne. Both Payne and Woodson were A.M.E. ministers. Seven years after the founding, Payne became the President of Wilberforce and with it the first Black American college president. In 1859 Rev. Woodson's youngest sister, Sarah Jane Woodson, was hired as an instructor in 1859 and with that became the first black American to teach at an HBCU. Sarah Jane was a graduate of Oberlin College. She left during the Civil War but returned and as given more responsibility and a loftier title. Later she left again to work and live in the South, teaching the children of the freedmen. Three of her brothers and her husband (married after she moved to the South) were A.M.E. ministers. The A.M.E. provided a framework for anti-slavery and black nationalist progress. The A.M.E. operates a seminary, which is located very close to Wilberforce University. It is a Payne Theological Seminary. It is a spin-off. Another one of the founders was Salmon Chase, who was leading abolitionist. He was elected Governor of Ohio in the same year Wilberforce was founded. Abolitionists had taken over the Ohio state government in 1849/50. They established 'common schools' for black students throughout southern Ohio. Chase became Treasury Secretary under President Lincoln.

[@micheleedwards2998]

Thank you, I am sharing this with my class for Black Histoy Month!

[@footworkmissionsoutreachmi2399]

Great story one of older cousins graduated from this college in 1965.